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more at http://news.quickfound.net/intl/vietnam_news.html Army aviation unit based Northwest of Saigon airlifts gear to Special Forces radio relay station on Black Virgin Mountain. From Your Army Reports No. 8. Vietnam War playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF7FC7A2D880623F7 Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Virgin_Mountain Black Virgin Mountain (Vietnamese: Núi Bà Đen meaning "Black Lady Mountain", Khmer: Phnom Chol Baden) is a mountain in the Tay Ninh Province of Vietnam. To the Vietnamese the mountain is the center of a myth about Bà Đen, a local deity of Khmer origin. During the Vietnam War the area around the mountain was very active as the Ho Chi Minh Trail ended a few kilometers west across the Cambodian border. As such there were many battles and American and Vietnamese soldiers based in the region remember the prominent landmark. After the war the mountain turned from a battle ground to being famous for the its beautiful temples and theme park... At 996 metres (3,268 ft), the extinct volcano rises from the flat Mekong Delta jungle and farmland. The mountain is almost a perfect cinder cone with a saddle and a slight bulge on her northwest side. The mountain is honeycombed with caves and is covered in many large basalt boulders. Vietnam War The Mekong Delta is generally a flat region with the exception of the Black Virgin Mountain. The mountain commands everything in its sight and was therefore a strategic location for both sides during the war. In 1964 the mountain top was assaulted by special forces and the peak was held by American forces as a radio relay station. Supplied by helicopter for much of the war the Americans controlled the top and the Viet Cong (VC) controlled the bottom and surrounding plain. In 1968 the station was once overrun by the VC, who killed all 23 Americans manning the station. In January 1969 the mountain was extensively searched by 1st Brigade elements of the 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry regulars, 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry, and tanks from the 2nd Battalion, 34th Armour. In the tunnels that honeycombed the mountain they found arms caches, and engaged VC units stationed on the mountain. Throughout the war the VC returned to the mountain and its cave bases. Colonel Donald Cook was the first Marine captured in the Vietnam war. For a time he was held near Black Virgin mountain. In 1973 the mountain was closed as an American base. During the closing days of the war when the mountain was abandoned by Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops, the local population left the region afraid of the approaching communist soldiers.